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When the Forecast Is Too Good To Be Tru

Friday night, the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Southern Colorado in effect until Tuesday, 03/03/15. Up to 3-4 feet of snow could accumulate in the San Juans.

And, this wasn’t far fetched. The previous Monday was skiing 30” deep. Every radar, weather summary, and snow forecaster was backing up the NWS’s claim - calling for low moisture content snow, and a metric fuck-ton of it.

Powderchasers.com, the ultimate tease for those diagnosed with PADD, flagged Wolf Creek to be absolutely blower on Monday. Being the responsible, mature, and studious college kids that we are, Bryce, Chris, and I decided to play hooky on Monday. The plan was to drive 6 hours from Fort Collins to Wolf Creek on Sunday night, get there Monday morning, sleep in the back of my wagon, and ski blower pow at a more reasonable hour.

Sunday: 12” in the last 24 hours. Holy shit, yes! 16 more inches were forecasted for that night alone; Storm total was reportedly 42", with 7 feet reported in the past week. The West Side of Wolf Creek Pass was closing Monday morning for avalanche control. By every factor that you can judge a pow day on: Monday was supposed to be insane.

“You boys stayin the night?” Yessir “Alright then, follow me.” Him and his furry caterpillar mustache hopped back in the front loader, and drove us to the VIP lot.

VIP lot on the right

Shockingly roomy with three people

It wasn’t snowing, but, hey, maybe the storm wasn’t supposed to come in until later. It was also warm. 29&#730;F at 3AM warm. But maybe something is just wrong with the temperature gauge on my car. It’s fucking late, or early, lets just go to bed. It’ll be better in the morning.

It fucking wasn’t.

The heat turned any fresh snow into Sierra Cement, and if there was any fresh snow, it sure as hell didn’t ski like it. $63.50 for a lift ticket, $50 in gas, 12 hours round trip driving, and 4 hours of sleep for what? For shit snow and a sprained MCL?

Yeah. Shit snow was exactly what it was. And it was fucking awesome. Yeah, the snow sucked. So what? We could have been in school; But there we were, skiing with our friends.

It's easy to get jaded. Everyone knows a few jaded skiers - hell I am one. Sure that pow day in 2010 was incredible, but it's 2015 and it's time to live in the present.

Complaining about the snow, or lack thereof, is easy to do, but it doesn't change anything. Every road trip is worth it, even if the forecast didn't match the conditions. The worst day skiing is always better than the best day at work - and anything is better than being in school.